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AL, BNP take stock of grassroots strength

AL mulls reorganising party units, focuses on mending weak points

Partha Pratim Bhattacharjee
The ruling Awami League repeatedly asked the grassroots to pick one candidate per post in the
upazila polls. AL President Sheikh Hasina and General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam sent directives to party units to this end. Besides, warnings of stern action and expulsion were issued.
Still, the party had at least 303 dissidents in the polls.
The AL, however, grabbed 225 chairman posts in the elections held in five phases, resorting to capture of booths, ballot-stuffing and violence. The contenders supported by the BNP won 156.
The results could not make the central leaders happy. While coordinating the polls, they identified a gap between the central and field-level leaders. They also found problems like leadership crisis and internal feuds in local units, said insiders. Moreover, councils of most of the units are long due, resulting in breaches in the chain ofcommand.
AL Presidium Member Obaidul Quader, who monitored the elections, came down hard on the rebels, saying their activities hampered the voting atmosphere in some cases.
During the polls, he said, they learned about the party's strength and problems.
The party high-ups now want to establish its full control over the grassroots as they think rebels might cause trouble in future elections as well, sources said.
The AL Central Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party,
will hold a meeting today in this regard.
Seven teams, which were formed to monitor upazila polls, will start visiting all districts and take steps to solve the problems the grassroots are facing.
The party will also consider bringing new faces in the grassroots committees.
"Now the party will go for reorganising the grassroots as we found that most of the councils are long due," AL Joint General Secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak told The Daily Star.
AL Presidium Member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim added, "Our main target at this moment is to reorganise the party by holding the councils."